~*Heaven*~

Read a book and just one thing, one little thing in that entire book just completely ruined it for you? You know like you could be enjoying the book and then one thing happens, it could be the smallest thing and for the rest of the book you can't get your mind off of it because it disturbed you so much and its hard to get through the rest of the book? I hate it when that happens!

This might be a small SPOILER for the book "Where the Heart Is" so...

I'm reading "Where the Heart Is" and the problem is that I was enjoying the book up until this one part, where they were in the storm cellar and the doors were open and a tornado was coming down. They had 2 animals in with them (a kitten and a dog). And the kitten was crawling across the floor and then the wind was so harsh that the kitten was pulled out into the storm and it died. I was sooo upset. I couldn't think straight, I mean I just felt sick and everytime I open the book to read it I can't stop thinking about that part. I love animals so much and if any animal dies in any movie or book it immediately ruins the entire thing for me and I probably can't watch it again. Gah!

[ 12-21-2003: Message edited ~*Heaven*~ ]

Profaine Angel

I'm the same when it comes to animals. In The Gathering by Isabel Carmody, the main character's dog is doused in petrol and set alight by a bully. I was enjoying the book up until then but it just killed it. I seriously hated the author for writing such an horrific thing in a book that is meant to be for kids [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] And in Lassie Come Home there's a little dog named Toots I believe who is kicked to death. Why must authors kill off such small defenceless little creatures? [img]smilies/cry.gif[/img] It doesn't add to the story, it takes away from it.

Stars_And_Sunsets

I think it was in "Needful Things" by Stephen King where a dog was killed and I didn't finish the book because I hated that the dog got killed. I think I actually cried. [img]smilies/blush.gif[/img]

~*Heaven*~

Yes I feel the same way! I cannot understand why they have to do stuff like that! I mean it really DOESN'T add to the story AT ALL. The story would be so much better without it. I mean I might finish the book, but it'll be hard and I don't think I can. Stars_And_Sunsets don't be embarassed I cried when I read about the kitten. I know its not real, but it feels real! Poor animals. And I really don't understand how they can feel good after writing something like that, doesn't it make them feel like crap, I mean....what makes them think about it in the first place?

Stars_And_Sunsets

It's just sick.
Anyone who can write about it and not feel bad is sick.

Crossbow

How do you know they don't feel bad about it? Haven't you read Heinlein's "The Cat Who Walked Through Walls"?

gossipGirl

I totally am with you. I won't give examples, cuz they're pretty stupid, but believe me, I'm there.

goodnightboy

For me...it was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Spoiler Alert
Well when Professor Umbridge did that horrible punishment on Harry I was just sickened by it. I felt it was very very inappropriate because it didn't have any purpose other than its shock value. What kind of impression will it have on young readers - who, by the way, are her main readers and her target audience - who are more impressionable? I really wanted to give up the book there and then. But I didn't, and it's partly because of this that made me not like this book very much, even though normally I love Harry Potter.

VelVetteo

I agree with you all totally. lots of movies/books
would have been so much more enjoyable if they
animals didnt die... such as Turner and Hooch,, My
Dog Skip,, Old Yeller,, Where the Red Fern Grows...
so on and so forth. all they do is make people
have heavy hearts or get p*ssed off. its bad enough
when 'some' [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] people die in movies/books
let alone animals.

[ 01-21-2004: Message edited VelVetteo ]

AdriaMichelle

Yeah, I have done w/ one book that I absolutely hated with a passion. It was called The Invisible Circus.

*Spoiler Alert*

When the author decided to have a relationship w/ Phoebe and her dead sister's boyfriend Wolf that made me really mad and I stopped reading the book.

girl in a cardigan

There was one book that this has happened to me with - Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married

When she started to go off on a tangent about her depression, I just quit reading. I've suffered from depression in the past and it's just not something I wanted to read about.

That was the first time I ever just stopped reading a book. Usually, I'll power through

Kimberly

mapraleif I hated that part of HP too! I almost threw the book and I never do that. But it pissed me off so much I think I saw red!

hmm there was one Victoria Holt book I don't even remember which one now but there was a rape scene and I just couldn't get over it. I stopped reading right then and there.

22 Umbrellas

I think they do it because animals do die, just like people do, whether it is of natural causes or not. And to not write about it would be unrealistic. Personally I usually avoid any books that are centered on animals unless they just have a really interesting description on the back.

And I'm sure I've been upset like that over a small scene in a book although I can't think of a specific instance. I think generally I'm very tolerant when it comes to violence and drugs and etc in books because I draw a very defined line between fiction and reality. Most things that bother me in real life never bother me in books or on TV.

There is this one part at the beginning of A Summer to Die by Lois Lowry...the main character's sister has leukemia and but no one knows what's wrong, she just keeps getting nose bleeds. Then one night, she wakes up b/c her sister is screaming and she turns on the light and there is blood everywhere -- in her hair, on the blankets, etc. I had to put down the book because I have had a problem with nose bleeds in the past and that part scared me to death. I realize Lowry was just trying to accurately depict the scene, but I really wish she hadn't done it so graphically.

*ADARA*

I've read a bunch of graphic scenes in books. If I read something as graphic as Lowry's nosebleed scene I would probably put the book down too. Then again, I'm really sensitive and easily upset.

Harry Potter: That disgusted me. I was outraged. Kim knows, as I've said at the HP Board, that I was yelling at the book when I read those parts. I was so angry that anybody could be like that. I know Umbridge is a fictional character but there really are people out there like that. I had to put the book down a couple of times and just breathe.

Where the Heart Is: I really like that book and the movie, only chick-flick I'll watch besides "Someone Like You" but yeah... I understand what you mean about the kitten part. I was bothered by that.

I'm sure there are other books but I'm not coming up with titles right now. One little thing can make continuing a book difficult. I believe there were certain things in the "Roswell High" series by Melinda Metz that kept popping up for me. I don't quite recall though as it's been years since I read those books.

~Chrissy~

Kimberly

Yeah Chrissy I was like that with Umbridge too. I can't even read HP fanfic with her in it without getting pissed

The last characters that ruined a book for me were the main characters in Wuthering Heights. Argh I just wanted to drown both of them.. they were so self centered and annoying